“Non-Muslims will vote only for a party that sincerely wants to replace the current administration,” said Mahfuz Omar, the MP for Pokok Sena and a former vice-president of PAS.
He was responding to a news report quoting PAS Youth chief Muhammad Khalil Abdul Hadi as saying the party believed it could win votes in urban seats because non-Muslims would support it for fear of being seen as anti-Islam.
According to the Malay Mail, Khalil said some Chinese and Indians were uneasy with DAP’s attacks on PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang over his attempt to seek harsher penalties under shariah laws. He expressed a belief that those who felt this way would vote for PAS so as to be seen as not being against Islam.
Mahfuz said he respected Khalil’s right to his opinion but added that PAS would damage its chances in the coming general election if it went along with the youth chief’s belief.
Mahfuz told FMT non-Muslims would be unwilling to vote for PAS precisely because the party had said it would compete for only 80 parliament seats and target 40 for victory.
“They will question why they should vote for PAS if the government is not going to change anyway,” he said.
“Voters will vote for a party that will be competing for all 222 seats and is confident that it will win at least 112 to form the government. This is not just the case for non-Muslim voters, but Muslim voters as well.
“If they vote for a party that, at the end of the day, will ensure BN stays in power, then they have basically wasted their votes.”
Amanah communications chief Khalid Samad also questioned Khalil’s rationale.
He said a political party would “traditionally” win votes from people who had confidence in it, not those who feared being seen as unfriendly to it.
“You’ve got to win the people’s support based on whatever merit you have and based on their confidence that you will be able to give them good service,” he told FMT.
“This is the first time I’ve heard of a party saying it expects to win votes on the basis of fear. I don’t think expecting people to vote for you because they’re afraid, and not because they want you, is a very sound strategy.
“I have no idea where Khalil gets all these funny ideas from. I don’t think the non-Muslims will vote for you if they don’t want to vote for you. The question of being labelled anti-Muslim or anti-Malay is something they have lived with for so many years. I don’t think it will make a difference to them.”
He said what did make a difference to the non-Muslims was their right to vote for whichever party they wanted as their representative. “It’s their right to choose the leader and representatives that they want and that’s what they have been told all this while.”